Syndication:

Today the 2nd circuit affirmed a 2003 decision of a US District Court, and agreed that New York state must let voters register as members of parties that are not qualified parties. Green Party of NY v NY State Bd. of Elections. Now, parties that manage to place a statewide nominee on the ballot will have the right to a list of all voters who register into that group. At the present time, groups that may receive such a list are the Green, Libertarian, Socialist Workers Parties (of course, the qualified parties of New York also have access to such a list; they include the Democratic, Republican, Independence, Conservative and Working Families Parties).

The decision will be useful in a planned lawsuit against Iowa, one of only two states that still will not permit anyone to register into a nonqualified party (the other such state is Kansas). There are also a handful of states that physically permit voters to register into unqualified parties, but refuse to keep a tally of such voters).

7 Responses

I know this is the wrong place, but I’m at a library computer and can’t send e-mail correctly.
Anyway, what I wonder: Is it really Utah that has “None of these candidates” on its ballot? Or isn’t it supposed to be Nevada?

I know this is the wrong place, but I’m at a library computer and can’t send e-mail correctly.
Anyway, what I wonder: Is it really Utah that has “None of these candidates” on its ballot? Or isn’t it supposed to be Nevada?

I know this is the wrong place, but I’m at a library computer and can’t send e-mail correctly.
Anyway, what I wonder: Is it really Utah that has “None of these candidates” on its ballot? Or isn’t it supposed to be Nevada?

In response to Steve Rankin’s question, I believe the Right to Life and Liberal parties lost their qualified status in New York during the 2002 gubernatorial campaign when their respective candidates failed to obtain 50,000 votes. Andrew Cuomo, the Liberal Party’s reluctant candidate in that race, garnered a paltry 15,761 votes.

The Liberal and Right to Life parties lost their ballot status in the 2002 election, but so did the Green Party, and that’s not what this suit is about; it’s about voter registration and the ability of parties to keep track of their members.

The diûtrict court’s decision applied to parties that had candidates on the statewide ballot in 2002, which were the Liberal, Right to Life, Green, Libertarian, and Marijuana Reform parties. The original post implies that this will be revised after this year’s election to remove the Liberal, Right to Life, and Marijuana Reform parties and add the Socialist Workers Party (as well as, presumably, the Peace and Justice and Builders parties if they want to continue to exist). But the 2nd Circuit did not do that; they limited their ruling to the original list of parties. So I’m not sure we can assume it will be done without another lawsuit.